“Is that bad?”
“No. It’s fascinating.”
Heat spreads through my chest.
“What else?”
“You’re beautiful. You know this, though. You move like you own every space you enter.”
My breath catches.
“Anything else?”
His voice drops lower.
“You make me want things I shouldn’t want. Feel things I shouldn’t feel.”
“Would it be so bad for us to experiment a little? We like each other. I want you, and you want me.”
I bite my lower lip and bat my eyelashes at him. I’m being obvious, but I don’t care. With him, I think being obvious is key.
“Jessa–”
“I know you didn’t want the anatomy you have now, but maybe it was given to you for a reason. Doesn’t everything happen for a reason?”
His hands clench on the table.
“Is it just curiosity on your part?” he asks.
I give that a serious thought, then shake my head.
“No. I mean, yes, but not only curiosity. I don’t know how to explain it.”
“You don’t have to explain yourself to me.”
“Sex isn’t sinful if two people like each other and there’s consent, Castien.”
“It is if it’s outside of marriage.”
I laugh. I know it must come out dismissive, even rude, but I can’t help it.
“Marriage is a concept invented by society. It’s not sacred, it’s practical.”
He shakes his head.
This is something I’ve argued before. My friend, Denise, didn’t listen when I tried to explain this to her before she married that controlling asshole she calls a husband. Now she’s trapped with two young kids and a man who monitors her phone and won’t let her go anywhere alone. Some people might call me cynical for thinking this way, but I’m just not naïve.
“Do you think I’m wrong?” I press. “You must’ve read hundreds of books, studied history. Even if you were buried in catacombs and a bunker for most of it, you surely know how it all started.”
Castien bows his head slightly, his eyes falling away from mine. His change in attitude tells me he’s not going to argue with me on this one. On the contrary, he’s about to tell me I’m right.
“The first recorded marriage ceremonies date to about 2350 BC in Mesopotamia,” he says. “Before that, humans lived in loosely organized groups with multiple partners. As hunter-gatherers settled into agricultural societies, they needed more stable arrangements.”
“Exactly. And why did they need those arrangements?”
“To join families and keep wealth within bloodlines. To form alliances for economic and political benefit.”
His voice sounds reluctant, though, like he doesn’t like admitting to the reality of things. Another human trait, in my humble opinion.
